Santoro: GL Tech board member uses motions to harass

TYNGSBORO -- Erik Gitschier has filed more motions this year, his first year on the Greater Lowell Technical High School Committee, than the seven other School Committee members combined.

At a meeting in October when Gitschier read out his 21st motion, Superintendent-Director Mary Jo Santoro had had enough, publicly unleashing feelings she had since Gitschier joined the board.

Reading from a prepared statement, the head of Greater Lowell Tech said she felt as though Gitschier's numerous motions and requests amounted to harassment and he was targeting her because she is a woman. The Lowell representative immediately denied the charges.

The superintendent's allegations led to the chairman of the School Committee calling for an investigation into the charges led by the school's attorney and Human Resources department.

No further information has been released publicly regarding the investigation or allegations. No formal complaint has been filed.

Emails obtained by The Sun show Santoro communicated with School Committee member David Tully her feelings about Gitschier's behavior months before her public outcry.

The Sun filed a public-records request in September with Greater Lowell Tech requesting all emails exchanged between Santoro and School Committee members from Jan. 1 through Sept. 28.

Gitschier campaigned on a pledge for transparency.

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He said he believes filing requests in the form of motions and having discussion in a public meeting is following up on that pledge.

In a recent interview, Santoro said she believes Gitschier files motions because he wants to make more work for her and doesn't do anything with the reports he requests.

"I think he's trying to make the job more difficult for me because he wants me out," she said.

She declined to provide examples of situations where she feels she is being harassed.

"I'm not willing to go public with anything now," she said, citing advice from a lawyer.

Gitschier said he requests reports to make himself more informed when people in the community or media ask him questions about the school.

He said he feels it is part of his job as being a member of the committee to file motions. He denies his motives are to make more work for staff or that there is an agenda to oust the superintendent.

"My motions speak for themselves," he said.

For example, he said he filed the motion in August asking the superintendent to look at three-year contracts for coaches after the head football coach resigned weeks before the season began. He thought the school should look into what other districts do and whether they use one-year or three-year contracts, which might give stability to the players, their families and programs themselves.

Gitschier asks numerous questions throughout meetings, not only of Santoro, but also of Business Manager George Garabedian and other administrators making presentations.

He sometimes appears excitable about a topic and speaks loudly when talking. He comes to meetings prepared with his own research.

Santoro and Gitschier often engage in a back-and-forth debate when talking about an issue, defending their opinions.

Gitschier and committee member George O'Hare also have had sometimes tense conversations at the table over the year, with O'Hare pointing his finger at Gitschier more than once.

One of the emails exchanged between Santoro and Tully was regarding Gitschier's motion for a report on the number of co-op students that are eligible for the program and the number of students on a co-op placement.

The motion was defeated by the board. At the time, committee members said Gitschier could request the information from administration without a motion.

After Gitschier spoke to Santoro regarding the information and was dissatisfied with her response, Gitschier called Tully, the longest-serving member of the committee, for his advice.

In an email in March, Tully said he spoke with Gitschier and advised Santoro she should give Gitschier the information if it would be available to any member of the public who asked for it.

"It could be a very lo......ong four years," Tully wrote on March 26 at 8 p.m. to Santoro. "We need to try to work together especially when the information is probably readily available to the public anyway."

In reply, Santoro wrote the next morning, in part:

"As usual Eric (sic) is not using his listening skills. We had a very good talk (or so I thought) and I told him I would get him the information...I am trying to work with him. I told him (former School Committee member) Mike Lenzi was going to invite Maureen Griffin (director of cooperative education and placement) to address the board about co-op and I told him I could have her bring info he wants to that meeting," Santoro wrote to Tully regarding her conversation with Gitschier. "That should've satisfied him but then he calls you and complains. He's TROUBLE!!!" (emphasis Santoro's)....

"He seemed to be ok with it and then he called you to complain. Not easy. I have to watch every word I use with him. He misrepresents every conversation he has with me."

Santoro said she sent the email because she felt Gitschier was setting her up because the motion failed and he reached out to one committee member to get the report. She said she would give Gitschier the information, but couldn't immediately because she wanted to go through the chairman to confirm that she would be able give the information.

In another email exchange with Tully in mid-August, Tully mentions as a postscript to another email the length of time the committee spent discussing Gitschier's motion requesting the superintendent to examine the length of coaches' contracts.

"P.S. I can't believe we spend more time on a 'football coach' than the Student Handbook," Tully wrote on Aug. 17.

Santoro replied the next day, in part: "I am so tired of the antics of a school board member with his own agenda. My having to produce a report on pros and cons of a 3-year contract for coaches is ridiculous. It was discussed thoroughly at the table (as you indicated). Do committee members really think I have nothing better to do? I am continually disappointed that other committee members allow him to make more work for me of such unimportance. It also feeds his need to 'tell me what to do.' "

Emails between Santoro and Gitschier are polite and cordial, with Gitschier addressing Santoro as "Ms. Santoro," even though Santoro said he could call her "Mary Jo." For the most part, Santoro addresses Gitschier as "Mr. Gitschier."

The emails are mostly questions Gitschier has about procedures or policies.

When told about the references made about him in the emails, Gitschier said he was advised by his legal counsel he obtained after the allegations to provide no comment.

Santoro said she was feeling frustrated when she wrote the emails.

"I had experienced a significant amount of bullying up until that point. I had had enough of his bullying," she said.

Santoro's contract expires June 30. She has said she is unsure if she will accept a contract renewal if the School Committee offers one. She is eligible for retirement and has had other job opportunities, she has said.

When asked if she feels as though she has to adapt to the preferences of different School Committee members, Santoro said she does not consider committee members her bosses, although she reports to them and they evaluate her.

"I don't work for the School Committee, I work for the district, I work for the commissioner of education," she said.

"I adapt to all eight of them, but I won't be treated disrespectfully," she added. "When they ask me for something, I give it to them. That's my job. The way somebody asks matters to me."

She says Gitschier speaks to her differently than other men, a claim Gitschier denies.

When proposing a new idea or doing something differently than has always been done, Gitschier said he is often faced with the response from other committee members and administration that "that is the way things have been done for 40 years." He said he is trying to move the school forward and more efficiently.

"If a business didn't change over a 40-year period, it would not remain in business," said Gitschier. "If government doesn't change over a 40-year period, they ask the taxpayers for more."

A shake-up on the Greater Lowell Tech School Committee began with the election of Fred Bahou, of Lowell, in 2009.

Bahou was an outspoken critic of the school's high administrative costs and the lucrative contract negotiated with former Superintendent James Cassin.

A Sun report in 2010 showed a large number of administrators' family members hired at the school under the leadership of Santoro, as assistant superintendent-principal, and Cassin.

Bahou has since been less vocal at meetings recently, until the meeting last month where he filed a motion to make any formal harassment complaint filed by Santoro public.

He ultimately withdrew the motion.

An analysis of the meeting minutes posted on the school website from 2009 to present shows the length of monthly meetings and the total number of motions filed by School Committee members have increased this year.

In 2009, the average meeting length was an hour and 20 minutes; in 2010 about two hours; about an hour and 45 minutes in 2011. This year, the average meeting ran for three hours 28 minutes.

In 2009, seven motions were filed by School Committee members, five filed in 2010, four in 2011. Forty-seven motions were filed this year.

This is the second example of a clash locally between a School Committee member and a superintendent of schools.

Former Lowell School Committee member Regina Faticanti was placed on pretrial probation in 2009 for a year on charges that she threatened former Lowell Superintendent of Schools Chris Scott during an early-morning telephone conversation.

Faticanti ended up losing her re-election bid that year and Scott was not offered a contract renewal by the School Committee in 2011.

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